All ages: Luanna Rugani of Stockton said her extended family puts slips of paper redeemable for lotto tickets in some of the plastic eggs they hunt for on Roberts Island. All ages participate. "My 88-year-old mother takes this very seriously. You don't want to be in her way," Rugani said. "The older folks want the lotto tickets but the grandkids want the candy."

Golden eggs: Stash cash in golden eggs to raise the stakes in your Easter egg hunt. Bet no egg will go undiscovered when some have a $5, a $20 or even $100 bill.

Glow in the dark: "The Campiglis always get together for a later dinner, so instead of rushing to hunt eggs before it got dark, I found some glow-in-the-dark eggs at Target that came with a special flashlight," Pam Campigli of Stockton said. "It was even more fun hunting eggs after it got dark. Even the adults had fun coming along with the kids and their flashlights."

Color coded: Want to make it fair for everyone? Assign a color to each egg hunter so that they can only collect their assigned hue.

Candy free: Ann Garcia of Stockton says her 5-year-old daughter Carley's eggs are filled with all sorts of girly-girl items - stickers, beaded bracelets, coins, mini bottles of nail polish, ponytail holders, rings, Playdoh, confetti, and even fish crackers. "But her favorite thing to find in her eggs are Squinkies, which are tiny toys," Garcia said. "They come in all kinds of characters."

Start in waves: When Liz Hernandez of Stockton gathers with friends and family at a local park for Easter, the kids are separated by age. Each group is set loose every 15 seconds.

Treasure hunt: Aye, aye! Make a treasure map that leads your pirates to the change and chocolate-coin-filled eggs. Or hide the Easter basket and put clues in eggs that lead to the loot.

Puzzle: Take a piece of card stock and write out a message that details the location of the Easter gifts. Cut the clue into jigsaw puzzle pieces and put each piece in a plastic egg. Once kids find all the eggs, they will have to team up and put the puzzle together to find their surprise.